A Serendipitous Encounter
by Kami the Music Box
Summary: Sam, Dean, and Cas are on the case! When attempting to dismantle a demon army, the boys in plaid run into an interesting and benevolent set of characters. Three OCs get thrown into the melee, a bit of swearing, and a teeny bit of violence.
1. We're Screwed, Aren't We?

_I do not own most of the characters nor any of the ideas in the below text. Sam, Dean, Cas, demons, angels, and other elements of Supernatural are the sole property of Supernatural and the CW, including the almighty Eric Kriepke, may his name be praised._

Dean stuffed more of his hamburger into his mouth. "Are you absolutely positive they're here, Sam?"

Sam rolled his eyes. Dean had asked three different variants of that stupid question in the past two hours. Sam did all the research, all the legwork. The only place in this Podunk town large enough to hide a demon army of that size was the local fishery, where a large warehouse and escape route via boat were readily available. Before Sam could say anything, Cas piped up from the backseat, "Four."

"Four what?" Dean asked, finishing off his meal with gusto.

"Four times you've asked him that. I counted."

"We can see that, Cas." said Sam. Dean rolled his eyes and chewed like a cow. Sam continued, "We'll need to get this spell just right- creating a trap around a building gets complicated. It'll be a lot of zapping around for you," Sam looked at the angel- or Seraph, rather- sitting in the backseat of the Impala and raised his eyebrows, "Is that all right?"

"I've got wings, don't I?" Castiel replied, his trademark gravel voice displaying amusement "Won't be a problem."

"Good."

Sam pulled the Impala up to a safe distance away from the warehouse and locked the parking brake into place. The sun was just going down. Almost as soon as the car had stopped moving, everyone was out and assembling all their gear, including, for this particular caper, several massive bags of rock salt. Cas easily lifted six, three cradled in each arm, while Dean and Sam both struggled mightily with two apiece. Soon, the work was underway. Castiel zipped around, creating a salt circle around the perimeter of the entire building thick and deep enough not to let any demons loose should a wind spring up from the river. Sam and Dean slowly worked their way through the building, ignoring the stench of sulfur, dodging the echoes of demonic voices when they heard them coming and trying to draw in all the symbols necessary to destroy every wretched agent of hell in there. The demons weren't going in to the rooms around the perimeter of the building, making it infinitely easy to finish the work.

Too easy.

An hour and a half later, they stood in the room at the northernmost corner of the building, about to finish the job, when Dean spoke up, "Have you noticed how easy this was?"

"Yeah, we must be good." Sam replied.

"Not that good. No one can be that good at hunting thirty demons. Something is up, here." Dean said.

"Dude, relax. Just accept the blessing of an easy job for once- it hasn't come in years."

"Exactly what I'm worried about, Sam. Why now, after all this time, do we catch a break?"

"I said relax, Dean. Nothing to it."

"I'm afraid you're wrong." Cas, appearing out of nowhere as usual, strode toward them with a worried look on his face, "And you need to come with me. Now."

"Hold up. What's wrong?"

"Just come on!"

Cas grabbed the arm of each Winchester brother and guided them through the hallways, down the stairs, and into one of the first hallways they had been in upon entering the warehouse. A light flickered, swinging drunkenly back and forth at the end of the way. With that periodic, beam-like illumination, it took the Winchesters a few seconds to realize what Castiel was so worried about.

The hall was littered with bodies. Upon closer examination, every single corpse had had its eyes burned out, "We were just here an hour and a half ago!" Dean hissed, "What the hell happened?"

"By the looks of it, they were smitten. "

"What?" Sam gasped.

"My thoughts, exactly." Cas continued, "Somewhere in this building, an angel is afoot."

"How many?" Dean asked.

"Angels or bodies?"

"Either?"

"Bodies, eighteen. Angels... probably just one. "

"Friendly? The angel, I mean."

"Maybe, considering these are the demonic vessels we encountered earlier at the tavern. But I don't see why we couldn't still exercise caution."

"And when the hell did this happen, exactly? Sam and I walked this hallway not even ninety minutes ago, and you, Cas..."

"I left this particular area only an hour after you did."

"And it wasn't like this the first time you saw it?" Dean asked.

"It was not."

"So whatever did this had only half an hour to gather up eighteen demons, smite them all at once, and skedaddle. And we're not exactly sure of their overall intentions." Dean finished.

There was a long, pregnant pause in the conversation, broken by Sam, "We're screwed aren't we?"


	2. Castiel!

Before anyone could answer, an unearthly scream pierced the silence from across the building. The three of them immediately broke into a run, following the unmistakable sounds of torture down hallways and through darkened rooms. Halfway there, though, two demons emerged from beneath the stairwell they were running down. Dean nearly screamed in frustration. They couldn't afford this delay!

"And what exactly do you boys think you're doing?" hissed one who was possessing a tall, rail-thin young man. His eyes shone black in the jagged fluorescent light of the warehouse, like beetle wings.

"We're looking for the angel that smote your fellow demons across the building." Sam huffed.

"Smote? Angel? That's rich. We are thirty strong, no singular angel has a chance!" exclaimed the thin man, turning his dead gaze toward Castiel, "Which includes you there, Feathers."

"Eighteen of you were burned up in a hallway across the building-" Dean began. The other demon, possessing a young female vessel with bright purple hair and piercings all over her face, laughed loudly, "You really think we'll believe that bullshit? You're a special kind of stupid aren't you?" Her eyes turned black with a quick blink and she moved to strike at Sam. Castiel intercepted her with his hand outstretched, slapping his palm to her forehead and smiting her out of existence. Dean attacked the thin man before he could slip behind and an all-out grudge match ensued between the demon and the Winchesters. As soon as he got a clear opening, Castiel reached from behind, covered the vessel's mouth with his hand, and smote the demon. All three of them kicked the bodies out of the way and looked around in panic. The sounds had disappeared. Where were they going now?

After a minute, the screams started up again, this time at a different pitch and intensity. Whatever the hell was happening, it was getting worse. Dean, Sam, and Cas took off running again. Once they neared the source of the screams, they slowed down and crept silently, still at a rapid pace, toward the sound. They were close enough now to make out words.

"You aren't getting a damn thing out of me, no matter how hard you try, no matter what you throw at me-" the voice, now recognizable as male, broke off into a scream of immense pain. As it wound down into a moan, a different voice, female, softer, and higher pitched, chirped happily like a canary, "You won't last long dear. Even Hell can't prepare you for our special kind of sadism, that's for certain. You should just give up now."

"Hey, all you have to do is let us know what the plan is, why the assembly of an army of demons, and we'll grant you surcease," another female chimed in, this one sounding deeper pitched and silky- a born seductress kind of voice. Dean waggled his eyebrows at Sam as the three of them crept up silently on a door at the end of a long, narrow hallway. Sam frowned disapprovingly at Dean, his face saying it all- you don't even know the girl and you're thinking of hitting on her? Really? Dean nodded smugly. Sam rolled his eyes. Castiel, blissfully unaware of the Winchester's tacit exchange, poised to kick down the door and unsheathed his angel blade.

"Eighteen of your fellows are dead, Maurice," the canary voice spoke again, "Just give us a heads up here and you shouldn't have to join them."

"No," Maurice groaned, his words slurring in pain, "I won' tell you nothin'. Lemme alone."

One of the women doing the torturing sighed dramatically, "Oh, I didn't want to do this," said the canary, "But it just has to happen this way, I suppose. Goodbye, Maurice. I _won't_ be seeing you in hell."

The quiet sound of something metal being picked up from concrete rang through the air. Castiel stiffened and turned to the Winchesters, eyes open in disbelief. Their questioning looks were answered with a thumb pointed to the door and then a finger tapped to his angel blade, producing the same, clear ring through the air. The indication was obvious. Whoever was on the other side of that door had an angel blade, quite possibly the very angel responsible for the bodies they had encountered. Now the brothers were nervous.

"You're not serious!" screamed Maurice.

"Sorry, man, but you won't cough up the information we want. You're officially useless to us. And my sister and I like to rid ourselves of useless things." said the other woman- the canary's sister, "Don't worry, now. I'll make it quick. A nice stab to the heart of your meat suit, and it'll all be over. Bye!"

"OKAY OKAY! OKAY! Please, don't kill me!"

"Unless you start singing, little bird, you're getting the axe."

"It's Lilith! She's behind it somehow... drawing more angels out into the open so they can be gotten rid of. Something about lions and wildebeest... I don't know. I just did as I was told. I grouped up with twenty-nine others and started screwing with people for the hell of it. Please let me go."

"You... _do_ know that Lilith is dead, right? Gone? Wasted?" The canary's sister queried.

"I _know_ that! I don't know how she's behind it... but I'm sure it's her! Let me go, huh?"

A silence followed, not long. The canary broke it, "If we release you right now, are you going to leave your vessel and not come back to Earth ever again?"

"Why would I do that?" Maurice queried, "This is so much more fun! Besides, I like this particular meat suit. He's a handsome little Satanist- he asked for this."

Dean, Sam, and Cas grimaced at once. Wrong answer.

"Wrong. Answer." replied the canary's sister, her voice shaking with anger.

"You prom-" Maurice's cry of protest was cut short by the crunchy, squishy sound of a blade entering a body. There was a silent moment, in which the guys could almost see the orange flash of the demon's atoms being blown to smithereens. They heard the squish of the blade being pulled out, and the sisters resumed conversation.

"Where do you suppose the other eleven are hiding out?" asked the canary.

"Not sure," replied the not-canary, "But they haven't left. A salt circle that thick would keep them stuck for a while yet."

Sam and Dean exchanged looks of surprise. Castiel sheathed his angel blade, a rare smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Do you suppose that whoever put that down was... you know..." the canary's voice gained a hopeful note, "...them?"

"The Winchesters? I doubt it. We can't be the only two pairs of hunters in the country, and they're busy, I'm sure." replied the not-canary, "Let's just get this wrapped up. I don't like this whole ten-to-one ratio crap we've been pulling for the last two months. I mean, we're getting better at dismantling these armies each time, but this was the only occasion we could get any info out of them. Let's hope Xeph has found the other eleven by now and dispatched 'em."

Dean put the Colt back into its holster. Sam sheathed Ruby's knife. As one, the brothers moved to knock on the door and introduce themselves. It would make the girls' day.

Suddenly there was the sound of an explosion. The whole hallway shook and screams of surprise rang out from the other side of the door. Instantly, Sam, Dean and Castiel were armed again and at the ready to intervene.

"Well well well, what have we here?" a new voice intoned, slick and greasy like oil, "Why it's the famous Black sisters, huntresses extraordinaire." A short pause, then, "Kill them."

Without hesitation, Castiel kicked the door in, popping it off the hinges in the process. First he, then Sam, then Dean filed into the room. It was in shambles, an entire wall blown away to admit the nine demons that were descending at once upon two young women. The shorter of the two held a sawed off shotgun and blasted rock salt rounds into one black-eyed demon. It shrieked in pain and wheeled away from the fight to recuperate. The taller one had- of all things- a gardening water reservoir strapped to her back, holding the sprayer for that in her left hand while her right hand clutched an angel blade. From the sprayer came an endless stream of what was obviously holy water, as it steamed on contact with the demons and made them scream. With a demon incapacitated by the pain, the taller girl then maneuvered close and stabbed straight into the heart with the angel blade. It was a good system, genius, in fact. Unfortunately the sisters could only take care of one or two demons at a time this way... and they had nine on their hands.

Fortunately, the Winchester bros were in town.

Sam peeled off and pursued the demon incapacitated briefly by the rock salt rounds. He grabbed it, still doubled over in pain, and dispatched it with two quick upward thrusts of Ruby's knife. He turned just as another demon realized the young women had reinforcements and ran toward him. Sam's left arm blurred as he punched the demon in the mouth, breaking a few teeth and slowing it down long enough for him to slash its throat from ear to ear with the knife. Quickly, he reeled away from the blood that sprayed from the gaping wound, which was edged with bright orange light- he didn't want to relapse anytime soon. The demon flashed that same color of orange and it collapsed to the floor.

Meanwhile, Dean had begun firing the Colt into the pair of demons trying to take out the shorter sister, who was busy reloading her shotgun. The first bullet hit one square in the back of the head, killing it instantly, while the second bullet entered the other demon's chest, wounding it. The demon tried to turn and confront him, but in its weakened state, it couldn't do much but push weakly against him with its telekinesis. Dean barely moved a yard backwards, sliding across the now dusty floor. By this time, however, the short sister had reloaded her shotgun and blasted the demon with salt, which distracted it long enough for Dean to reload the Colt and shoot the damn thing in the head.

All this had taken place in a mere ninety seconds, during which Castiel strode across the room, his wings flaring with holy rage. He swept past one demon, originally heading for Dean and the Colt, and smacked his left hand to its mouth, smiting the demon out of existence. As the body dropped to the ground, Castiel sprinted around the melee and grabbed one of the three demons surrounding the taller sister, all of which were trying desperately to focus on killing her, despite the continuous shower of holy water. Castiel spun the demon around to face him as it blinked steaming holy water out of its dead black eyes and thrust his angel blade into its chest. Seeing the opening Castiel had made, the taller girl lunged forward and thrust her own angel blade into the stomach of another demon several times, utilizing her very long arms and legs in a darting but well-trained motion. Castiel finally reached the leader of the demonic skirmish team, the one with the oily voice. Even though the demon managed to keep her head enough to elude the angel blade, she was under a continuous shower of holy water and couldn't get close enough to the girl to hurt her.

The demon suddenly spun away from the holy water and backpedaled toward the wall where they came in. Castiel zapped across the space and met the demon at the hole in the wall. The demon, who had been running hunched over in pain, straightened, her black eyes gleaming in the weak moonlight as she steamed and shuddered. She tried to back away, growling, "You! I didn't come here to have my day ruined by your feathery ass-"

Castiel snatched her by the collar and yanked her to her knees. Without skipping a single beat, he plunged his angel blade into her chest hard enough to crush her sternum and watched with satisfaction as the light flashed orange in her and she died. He turned back to the battle at hand and watched as the Winchester brothers finished dispatching their charges and silence descended upon the group. The sisters looked around, terrified, and scrambled to stand back to back, brandishing their weapons.

Dean holstered the Colt and Sam sheathed Ruby's knife, putting their hands up into the universal I'm-no-threat signal. Castiel, too, sheathed his blade after wiping the demon blood off and walked toward them hands up. "It's alright," said Cas, "We won't hurt you-"

"Can it, freak." snapped the taller sister in her high pitched, chirpy voice. This, then, was the canary.

"Suzie-" the shorter tried to cut in, her silky tones arranged soothingly. The taller- the canary- Suzie, rather, shook her head violently, "No ordinary human moves that quickly, Di. He just appeared out of nowhere. He has an angel blade, too, which either makes him a thief, a murderer, or worse: an actual angel, more of a tossup than anything. Those two," Suzie indicated the Winchesters with her head and ignored the miffed looks that all three of the men were giving her, "Are more human in their movements, but I just don't know if they're trustworthy."

"Shouldn't the fact that the holy water didn't hurt us prove that we aren't a threat? It _has_ landed on everyone here, you realize," Sam pointed out.

"Hell," Dean cut it, "I volunteer to be _sprayed directly_ with holy water. Just to prove I'm here in good faith... you know, if the fact that I killed two demons for you isn't quite enough."

Suzie hesitated, exchanging a slightly panicked look with her sister Di.

"If you like," Dean said flirtatiously, "I'll take my shirt off." He winked.

Suzie still looked confused. Di cocked an eyebrow and said, "Don't trouble yourself for our sake, sugar." Glancing at her sister, she gestured towards all three of them, "Spray 'em down."

Suzie took a deep breath, pointed the sprayer at Dean's chest and showered him in holy water. Nothing. She pointed it at Sam and did the same. Nothing. She pointed it at Cas and sprayed him. Nothing. Warily, she lowered the sprayer and put her blade away. Di put the shotgun down and separated from her sister, turning the dynamic from a hostile to a friendly one instantly. After an awkward pause, she clapped her hands together and said, "Well, let's get started, shall we?"

"Where'd you get that angel blade?" Suzie cut in. Her eyes were trained on Cas.

Cas cleared his throat, "It's mine."

"But where'd you get it from?"

"Standard issue, when I was born. I'm an angel."

"Are you now?"

"I am. The question on my mind is where you got _your_ angel blade."

"Someone gave it to me."

"Did they now?"

"She did."

"Guys, guys," Di interrupted, "You can flirt later. Let's do introductions now." She smiled, obviously pleased at the miffed look on her sister's face. "My name is Diane Black. You can call me Di. This is my sister Susan Black. If she gives you permission, you can call her Suzie."

"You do _not_, at this time, have that permission." Suzie said.

"Alright," Di said, elongating the first syllable, "What are your names?"

Sam and Dean exchanged looks. "You're not going to believe us." said Dean.

"I don't have my sister's trust issues," Di replied, "But I can still tell a liar when I see one. You guys aren't lying to us- we're not your mark. So what are your names?"

"Well..." Sam started, "My name is Sam Winchester."

Both of the girls' jaws dropped.

"And I'm Dean. Dean Winchester." Dean cut in, "When we overheard your conversation outside the door there, we thought we'd come in and give you a nice surprise. Unfortunately, our... guests had other plans."

"You... you're..." Suzie gulped, "You're the Winchesters?"

"Yes ma'am," Sam said, "That would be us."

Suzie and Di looked at each other, mouths agape, then started squealing loudly, a sound the Winchesters were very familiar with- their "fangirls" had done much the same thing. Patiently, Sam and Dean waited it out. Soon enough, they stopped screaming and started gushing.

"We are huge fans of yours."

"Huge."

"You guys are such an inspiration-"

"You _can_ call me Suzie!"

"But what's _your_ name?"

Di was looking straight at Cas, a questioning look on her face. He was caught slightly off guard, but cleared his throat and replied, "Oh, me! My name is-"

The ceiling caved inward at that very moment, bringing down a shower of sparks and rubble. Everyone ducked and covered their heads with their arms, trying to protect themselves from everything coming down. With a thud, someone hit the concrete floor behind the sisters and stood up. She raised her head to reveal oily black eyes and a vicious, gap-toothed smile. Castiel unsheathed his angel blade once more, but before anyone else could react to the demon's presence, she swept her hand outward and everyone, including Cas, went flying backward through the air. They hit the wall hard, getting the wind knocked completely out of them. The pressure on their bodies got steadily worse and worse as the demon sauntered toward them, keeping them suspended fifteen feet off the ground with her telekinetic powers. The Black sisters and the Winchester brothers struggled to pull air into their lungs, flailing weakly against the invisible bonds holding them up. Without air, they'd be dead soon, and Cas desperately tried to push against the demon. She was too strong, though- far too strong for a mere black-eyed demon.

"You have failed," she hissed, "sisters Black. I hope you're happy- I'm going to kill me an angel tonight along with your sorry hides." The demon swept her vessel's long blonde hair out of the way of her face and released her telekinetic hold on them, dropping them to the floor. Castiel reached out desperately with his own telekinesis and managed, just barely, to slow their descent and avoid breaking any bones. The demon cocked her head and giggled hysterically. "Somebody loves you all," she said, "Doesn't he? Pity the angel of God, with no God to fly home to. Pity the one in doubt." The register of her voice lowered into something even more inhuman as her gaze traveled from Cas to the Black sisters, "Pity the girls." She raised her hand and formed a fist. Dean and Sam's hearts dropped- that fist could only mean one thing. In less than a second, the demon would use powers of biokinesis to snap someone's neck with a simple turn of her wrist- and her gaze was currently aimed at Suzie Black. They braced themselves for the break and the despair as Di lost the person closest to her... and for whatever the demon would choose to do with _them_.

"Hey ugly!"

A voice rang out through the now completely dark room, clear and high and furious. The demon's head turned sharply toward the sound just over her right shoulder, and at that same instant an angel blade came sailing through the air, plunging into the demon's right eye socket up to the hilt. There was a flash of orange and the body dropped to the ground. The whole exchange, from threat of death to the demon's demise, had taken a maximum of two seconds. Confused and still gasping for breath, the Winchester brothers rose unsteadily to their feet. Cas jumped up, eyes wide, staring at something no one else could see. The Black sisters, however, seemed to know exactly what was going on and crowed in triumph. "Go Xeph!" Di croaked with what little air she had in her lungs.

Sam frowned and Dean looked worried. Who _was_ this "Xeph" they kept talking about?

The lights above and behind them flicked back on, the only ones in the room that could still work. They created a pool of light around the Winchesters, the Blacks, and Cas, who still cast a terrified look into the darkness. Footsteps echoed in the room and an extremely odd figure crossed into the light: shorter than average and wearing the strangest hooded coat the Winchesters had ever seen. She pushed the hood up and shook her hair back as she said, "Y'know, I am getting _real_ sick and tired of banishment spells..." She trailed off, her gorgeous blue-green eyes opening wide as she caught a glimpse of Cas for the first time. Silence fell. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Dean and Sam moved a bit closer to their angelic friend as Suzie and Di moved to stand beside the newcomer. She opened her mouth in disbelief, trying desperately to work out what word to use, before she shook herself a little and cried, in the happiest, most hopeful voice ever uttered, "Castiel!"


	3. We Can Make A Fire

Dean and Sam looked at Cas, and, seeing the worried look on their friend's face, instantly went into protective mode. "Cas," Dean began, "Who is this?"

Suzie gasped loudly, "_This_ is Castiel?"

The short woman strode across the space between them, a look of determination on her face, as she replied simply, "Yup."

"We were fighting alongside _THE_ Castiel?" Suzie practically shrieked.

"Yup." the woman was a mere three steps away from the Winchesters.

"Xephaniah-" Cas began to say something that sounded vaguely placating in nature, but as she took the final step towards him her arm blurred through the air and she slapped Cas in the face. The blow sent him stumbling backward, and he had to place his hands on the wall behind him to remain upright. He straightened. His face was contorted into a grimace of pain, and he growled, "What exactly was that for?"

The short woman- Xephaniah- grabbed him by the trench coat and yanked him toward her. Dean and Sam stiffened for another blow but she surprised everyone by embracing Cas tightly. He squirmed, visibly uncomfortable with the situation. Xephaniah pulled away, a smile lighting up her entire face. An instant later, it disappeared and was replaced with an angry frown, and she pointed a finger at him like a scolding mother, "You. Are. An. Idiot." She spat angrily. A smile bloomed again on her face, "And I am so incredibly happy we found you alive!"

Sam cleared his throat, "Uh, Cas? Can angels get bipolar disorder?"

"Oh, shut up!" Xephaniah said cheerfully. She turned and extended her hand to Sam, "That's just my natural sparkling personality. It is nice to finally meet you guys, by the way. My name is Xephaniah. You can call me Xeph if you like." She shook hands with Sam and turned to do the same with Dean, "Sorry it took me so long to get here. That last one banished me," she indicated the body lying on the floor with an angel blade buried in its eye, "otherwise I would have taken care of the other eleven demons, too."

The Winchester brothers exchanged wary looks. "So you're the one who killed all those demons?" Sam asked. Dean put a hand on the Colt. Xephaniah smiled proudly, "Yup! It was child's play. The most difficult part was getting them to follow me around. Obviously, I didn't manage to get these guys the same way but hey," She turned to the body lying on the floor and bent down to retrieve the angel blade, which she pulled out with a squish and began to clean with a plain white handkerchief. When the blade was spotless, she tucked it back under her coat and tossed the handkerchief onto the body, setting both aflame, "I've taken on bigger monsters than these, and it was short work anyhow. I was in and out of there and giving chase to the other eleven in sixty seconds, tops. Sadly, this one has been hunting my girls here for quite some time- she was in the first army they dealt with and the exorcism didn't go quite right. She used to be a witch, too- explains how she knew that stupid banishment spell... I guess... but I digress. Needless to say, she was pretty pissed. When she bumped into me, I ended up having to give chase to her, too, but in going back and forth between her and the others I lost her long enough for her to draw me a banishing symbol and send me tumbling through space. I got back just in time, thankfully. But hey, what are guardian angels for?"

Sam frowned, "How did you get them around us without us noticing you?"

Xeph waved a hand as she moved over to the Black sisters, looking them up and down like a worried mother, "Out-of-sync timeline. They never even knew."

"You used an out-of-sync timeline? That's..." Cas paused, looking equal parts troubled and awed, "impressive."

"You're very kind, Castiel, but I've had eons to practice on it," Xeph replied as she set a hand on each sister's neck and healed them of all major injuries, "It's like any skill."

"What's an out-of-sync timeline?" Sam asked. Suzie echoed the query.

"An out-of-sync timeline is like an alternate timeline combined with an alternate universe, but it's only one or two seconds ahead of reality. It's very subtle, but effective if you want to move around people without being noticed."

"Wait," Dean asked, lifting an eyebrow, "That's a thing?"

"As an old friend of mine used to say," Xeph continued, "It's all very wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. Don't ask me where he came up with that."

"Anyway," Di cut in, "everything is taken care of, right? We can all go to our momentary repose... right?"

"Not just yet, Di," Xeph replied, "This warehouse is an important place of commerce to the people who live in this town, and the cost of repairs might take them under. Head for the car, all of you. I'll get in contact with some people. And then," she paused, looking pointedly at the Black sisters, "I have a very important gift for Castiel."

The Winchesters, the Blacks, and Cas left Xeph standing in the room. Cas turned back and saw her pull out a tiny cell phone and text someone furiously. Soon they had left that hallway and were traveling back to the front entrance. By way of staving off awkward silence, Sam struck up a conversation with Di, and it wasn't very long until Dean and Suzie were walking arm in arm, cracking jokes. Cas walked along in stony silence, keeping a wary eye out for threats.

When everyone got outside, the Winchesters found a powder blue Volkswagen Beetle parked relatively close to the Impala.

"Is that your car?" Dean asked Suzie.

"Yeah. Is that yours? I'm sure someone told me you guys drive around in a black Impala."

"Yes, that's my baby," Dean smiled proudly. Di rolled her eyes, grinning, "Men and their cars." she said. Suzie playfully punched her sister in the arm, "_Men_ and their cars? Really? Like you don't take obsessive care of the Beetle? Like you don't spend your free time cleaning her up and polishing her chrome? Look! You've even got me calling her 'her'. You've basically anthropomorphized this car."

"Well it _was_ Grandma Peggy's, so I like to take good care of her. It's an homage."

"Shall we sit down?"

Sam turned. Xeph was coming up the hill toward them, maybe three yards away. Her arms were laden with wood, "We can make a fire."


	4. Let's Begin

Within twenty minutes, the fire was blazing and everyone was sitting around it on spare cinderblocks that always seem to hang around factories and warehouses. Sam took a long drink from the water bottle Di had given him from their car, "I have a couple of questions for you, Xephaniah," he said, "the first being, why the fire?"

"Sitting around a campfire, outside, under the darkness of the stars is one of the friendliest situations I've ever seen. You don't invite an enemy or a hostile person to sit at your fire. Family and friends and guests go around your fire. It's almost primal," the angel replied, "And please, call me Xeph. It reminds me that you're human."

"I get the feeling you like humans," Dean said, opening a water bottle of his own.

"I'm somewhat of a fan, yes. I do pick favorites though," the angel indicated the Black sisters. They both grinned.

"Where'd you get this wood?" Sam resumed.

"Ah, from the factory. They can't afford nice things, so their furnaces and boilers are run on wood heat. They had plenty of firewood on hand, so I figured, why not?"

"And finally... what's with that coat?" Sam asked.

"Aw, come on. Castiel wears one."

"Yeah but his looks like a normal coat you might pick up at JC Penny. You, on the other hand, look like you stepped out of an anime set in Victorian times," Sam replied.

"It's my vessel's favorite coat," Xeph said, "and when I told her I needed her as a vessel, she said sure, as long as I let myself be, quote, 'an awesome badass' and wear the coat when I was, quote, 'in action'. It was very important to her."

"Why's that?" Sam asked.

"It was a gift from her late great-uncle Donny, and one of the few possessions she had with her."

"Why's that?"

"She was a fugitive from the law."

Dean cocked an eyebrow, "A fugitive? What did she do, LARP in a restricted area?"

"She was wrongly accused of murder."

Shocked silence descended on the Winchesters.

"I'm not sure if you remember," Xeph said, leaning forward, "But fourteen years ago the Irish ambassador to China was found murdered in his bathroom at the Irish embassy in China. Myra here," Xeph pointed at herself- rather, she pointed to the body she inhabited, "was an intern at the embassy. The ambassador was sweet on her and was wooing her at the time. He really was a great guy, full of so much potential..." the angel looked grief-stricken for a moment before continuing, "and Myra was framed for his murder. Her DNA was planted at the crime scene and the security footage that would have exonerated her was stolen from the embassy's video data bank. She first tried to appeal through legal means, but when the evidence was overwhelming and it looked like she was going to get turned over to INTERPOL and executed, she took off across Asia and then Europe. Slowly but surely, her closest friends and family either sold off her possessions as they got hold of them and wired her the cash or, in the case of this coat, sent them to her, wherever she was hiding. She was constantly moving; every two or three weeks the authorities would find her and she'd be off again. After about sixteen months, she faked her death in Finland and escaped to the Swiss Alps, where her family knew of a secluded cabin about twenty miles away from the nearest village, and when I say secluded, I mean _really_ off the map. The only way to get from the village to the cabin was by donkey, as there were no roads to this place and the mountains were rough. She lived there for six more months, making it her homestead and occasionally sending encrypted radio messages to her parents in Ireland to let them know she was alive. It was during this time I began to speak with her, and prepare her to be my vessel. Unfortunately, INTERPOL finished investigating her 'accident' and concluded that she in fact had not died and was still out there... then they started noticing certain anomalies on international radio stations being broadcast from Switzerland... They arrested her family, but let them go and set about to find Myra."

"Did they?" asked Sam, leaning forward with anticipation.

"They did," Xeph replied, pulling the tiny little phone out of her left boot, "There was a very dramatic final showdown, during which armed helicopters killed her donkey, which was her only way of escape, and shot up that lovely cabin she'd worked so hard on for so long. At the last moment, she prayed for rescue."

"_Xephaniah_!"

Cas and the Winchesters jumped at the scream. Upon looking around, they realized Xeph was playing a recording back for them.

"Xephaniah, you once told me I was chosen, that you needed me," the voice sobbed in the most heartbreakingly romantic Irish brogue they'd ever heard. Loud gunshots resounded in the background, "Well I need some help, too!" After a pause, the voice- Myra- resumed, "Father God, look down upon this poor sinner. I can't do this on my own. I'm about to die, and I know you saved me for a better purpose than to be shot or executed for a murder I did not commit! Please Father, send Xephaniah to me; send your angel for my protection. I need you. Please, I pray this in Jesus' name, help me!"

Static took over the recording at that moment, a broadband of white noise that abated long enough to hear Myra in her Irish brogue say, "Well of _course_ I give you permission! What exactly is my alternative here? And don't forget my coat!" The static took back over, accompanied by a high pitched whine that made everyone's head hurt, and then the recording shut off.

"...and I asked for permission to enter," Xeph continued after a moment of silence, "Obviously, she gave consent right away and I made her disappear to America, taking a stop off in Ireland so she could say goodbye to her family, which may have been the very last time they ever got to talk to her."

"Wow," Dean said, and whistled, "That is... ah... stressful."

"Yeah," Xeph agreed, "but even though her body has been royally abused this past decade or so, she'll take anything, even braving the depths of Hell, over wrongful execution, which she technically needn't fear anymore since I..." here she paused and seemed to be looking for just the right word to use, "...made some evidence turn up in her favor, shall we say. She's always had a taste for adventure, and if angels had middle names, that would be mine!"

There was quiet laughter, which then subsided to the peaceful "silence" of the outdoors- the chirp of crickets, the rushing sounds of the river in the distance, an occasional hooting owl. After a few minutes, Cas turned towards Xeph and said, awkwardly, "You, uh... you said you had a gift for me?"

"Yes." Xeph's eyes lit up with excitement. Dean found himself smiling- he found the little shortstop endearing.

"You are a doubter. You question your authority and always have," Xeph continued.

"...Yes." came the reply from Cas.

"I watched you grow up, you know. I saw your personality manifest. I knew you, in particular, were trouble."

"Um..." Cas looked more and more awkward by the minute, "Um..."

"It was endearing."

"Ah." Cas interjected, "Thank you."

"Unfortunately this led to your penchant for never truly following orders, which has led to your memories being taken away in an attempt to keep you under control." Xeph said. Her voice gained a darker edge, "This particular practice of the higher-ups has always disgusted me."

Cas seemed taken aback by the sudden, intense compassion being expressed by the short angel, but a hint of a smile seemed to tug at the corners of his mouth. Xeph saw it and reciprocated with a wide, warm beaming smile of her own.

She continued, "I have always wanted to reunite the angels with their lost memories, because what are we without the reminders of our past? What are we without the lessons we have learned?" She seemed to shake herself out of a reverie, "Over the past decade plus, I have been teaching and training these girls to hunt and keep the world safe while you boys are busy with bigger fish to fry. We've run into some nasty situations, true, but I've used these as teaching moments, and the girls have gotten so much better and stronger for it. All they need is a few more years of experience on them, and they could just about rival you boys." She laughed, and the sisters joined in.

"I digress, I digress," Xeph resumed, "In the past couple of years, the girls here haven't needed me as much as they did in the beginning, giving me a whole lot of free time." A devilish grin spread across her face, encompassing her eyebrows and all of her teeth, making her look incredibly scary in the firelight, "And me plus free time equals miiiiiissscheeiiiiifffffff..." she said, drawing out the word like a demented hiss. Instantly her bright, bubbly personality returned, "So I've been causing some quiet trouble on my own time!"

"What have you been up to?" Castiel asked warily.

"When I found out that Naomi died, I was devastated- it was her mind that those memories were trapped in," Xeph said, "She's the main culprit who's been tearing into angel heads and ripping out memories, and I knew I had to get them before she was killed. So I took a little trip back in time, just a couple of days before her death, and I ripped them right out of her head like she's done to so many of you. Maybe I was too harsh... do you know she fought me, hard, for those stupid memories? They were just taking up space in her head but she knew what I wanted to do with them..." Xeph paused, an unreadable expression on her face, before she continued matter-of-factly, "My gift to you, little brother, is the grand majority of the memories you have ever had stolen from you. I give you back your memories."

Cas looked positively stunned. "You... have them, in your head, right now?"

"And I am willing and eager to give them back to you. I remember the look on your face the first time someone extracted a memory to keep you under control- not Naomi, but someone else. I saw you break a little, subtly, far under the surface where it can't quite be named, but I saw you change... you've never been the same, and indeed putting the memories back in place isn't going to take you all the way back to how you were before, but it just might fill in the gaps. In fact, I know it will," Xeph paused, then continued, "I visited her body the day she died. She went down fighting, you know. To insure that no one else ended up with it, I took her angel blade. Suzie carries it now. It may as well be in the hands of someone who'll put it to good use."

"I like it," Dean said, lifting his water bottle to her in a toast "And you, Xeph."

"Aw Dean, I'm touched."

"You're welcome."

"I didn't say where I was touched."

Dean threw his head back with laughter, and Xeph's impish grin returned.

"You must be very powerful to have overtaken Naomi." Sam said hesitantly.

"You would be positively astounded, my dear, to discover what advantages the element of surprise can lend you," Xeph said, "Naomi wasn't expecting me to jump her, so I had an easier time of it when I did. And it's not like I allowed her to remember the encounter- taste of her own medicine."

"You have... my memories..." Cas repeated, dazed.

"Yes I do, sweetheart," Xeph replied. She grew serious, "Do you want them back now?"

Cas gave her an incredulous look, "Of course I do!"

Xeph's huge smile returned, "Alright then." She got up and sat down right beside him, turning her body so she faced him. He did the same. She closed her eyes and steadied herself, then placed her hands to either side of Cas' face and stared into his eyes, "Let's begin."


	5. And Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Both angels tilted their heads so that their foreheads were touching, still maintaining eye contact. After a second, blue light began to glow in Xeph's eyes. Cas' eyes followed suit soon after. There was a disturbance in the air, the fire flickered, and then the blue light seemed to explode out of Xeph, becoming positively blinding and obscuring view of anything else. A high-pitched, grating whine filled the air and it was all the Winchesters and Blacks could do to stay composed as they squeezed their eyes shut and covered their ears. This seemed to go on forever, but it may have only been a couple of minutes, until suddenly everything stopped. At first, they were completely blinded by the aftereffects of the light. Slowly, their eyes adjusted.

"Don't try to dwell on these all at once, and not right now," Xeph said in the ensuing silence, "Explore every last memory later, when you have several hours to yourself, and then, keep looking at them. Keep remembering. Ruminate over every single detail. You'll take ownership over them and they'll fit back into your psyche much easier. Just not right now; it takes some serious meditation."

"How can I ever express my gratitude?"

"By staying safe and making smarter decisions with your life than you have been."

By this time, the humans' eyes had readjusted and could see the two angels. Xeph was still sitting beside Cas, one hand on his shoulder. Cas was looking into the fire, a thoughtful expression on his face. He glanced at Xeph, a bemused smile across his face, "How do you know what mistakes I've made?"

"I was told not to interfere. And for your information, I have something I like to call 'The Grape Vine', a group of informants who keep me... well, informed. My last orders were to become the official guardian angel for the Black sisters, to leave you guys alone to make your own mistakes, and improvise in all other circumstances."

Cas looked at her in surprise.

"Specifically to leave me alone? Specifically me?"

"Improvise?" Sam asked.

"Not specifically you, but all of my younger brothers and sisters," Xeph replied, "Perhaps because my own upbringing was so hardnosed, I always wanted childhood, and life in general, to go a little easier for you guys. I didn't want you all to have to grow up as fast as I had to. Of course, you did anyway. Sometimes I was a bit sneaky and made things easier for you- like at Sodom and Gomorrah. I'm sure you remember thinking that there was a distinct lack of infants and pre-verbal toddlers."

"I do. Everyone in Heaven was split on that- whether someone did their job or not, or if Lucifer was there and this was a scheme of his... some said we were all being paranoid and of course the children had been taken care of too."

"It was me."

Cas raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I took the children because I knew you and a ton of others would hate having to end lives that had only just begun. And before you say that I defied God's will, some of those kids grew up to become ancestors of Esther _and_ Ruth. Aka, the woman who saved the Jews and one of The Messiah's human ancestors. The Lord works in mysterious ways."

Almost everyone was taken aback. Cas looked confused, "How did you manage to get around so many angels unnoticed?"

"I had had a couple thousand years to practice the art of being sneaky. Remember the out-of-sync timeline we were talking about earlier? It works around angels, too, especially if they're busy."

"Improvise?" Sam reiterated.

"I _have_ tried to help you guys out in the past few years as well, but it always resulted in a stinging rebuke from my superior: 'That isn't your job, Xephaniah!' He'd say, 'Your job is to ensure that we have more people out there taking care of the things we can't get to!' I sort of gave up after a while."

"Hmm," was Castiel's only reply.

"_Improvise?_" Sam asked once more.

"Yeah... I'm not sure what he meant by that," Xeph said, finally addressing Sam's query, "but if I've pulled a Castiel in the last decade plus, I'm sure I'll hear about it the day... well, one day," Xeph replied, "And yes, I call it pulling a Castiel. You've had some pretty bad ideas, my dear. You know that, don't you?"

"Of course. And I've tried to learn from my mistakes."

"That's the best you can do."

Xeph stood and moved back to her original seat, "If you girls want to stay here for a while, we can."

"I definitely want to hear some Winchester stories," Di said.

"Hell yeah! Tell us about the Apocalypse and everything!" Suzie crowed.

The night wore on and the group continued bonding over their mutual profession. While they talked and laughed underneath the moon, Sam and Dean each got better looks at the sisters. They were gorgeous girls- Suzie was about five-foot-seven, slender, with shoulder length, curly blonde hair, a small, dainty mouth, and cheekbones you could cut cheese with. Di was about five-foot-four and curvaceous, with wavy black hair that fell past her waist and a turned-up, Hollywood-ready nose. Both of them had the same pale complexion and piercing blue eyes. Xeph's vessel Myra was even shorter- five-foot-two at most- and other than her asymmetrical, dirty blonde hair and color-shifting eyes, she was physically unremarkable. Her coat, though, was something to get used to- grayish blue, velvety kind of fabric, with a hood, a lace-up front reminiscent of medieval or Renaissance clothing and a... well, it could only be described as a fashionably raggedy, asymmetrical hem. It fell to her ankles at the longest part and made her quite the character. Sam and Dean were happy to find more friends, as were the Black sisters: they had all spent so long moving across the country, hunting monsters and risking their lives with nobody but each other and a very short list of close friends to fall back on for support. They were all reaching out to find other people who could understand, and Sam and Dean did. Suzie and Di told their life story: they were born and raised in Montpelier, Vermont. Their parents were both innocent bystanders in the metaphysical war- their father was an actuary for State Farm and their mother was an author of young adult mystery novels. After the girls had both moved out, their parents bought a smaller house outside of town, right next to a small, man-made lake. Sadly, they were both lured to their deaths by a water wraith after about a year or so after they moved in- the very morning Di graduated from college. It was a familiar road from there- mysterious cause of death and dismissal from authorities leads to burning curiosity leads to intense research leads to the discovery of the metaphysical... leads to a life of hunting the monster that killed the people they loved. There were tears and there were laughs and from Xephaniah's perspective, it was a very successful union of friendship. Throughout the ensuing hours, she and Cas both sat quietly, only adding their two cents every once in a while to bolster the conversation.

At around three o'clock in the morning, with a gentle reminder from Xeph that messing with the natural Circadian rhythms of the human body was a terrible idea, the Winchesters and Blacks both stood, exchanged contact information and a few hugs and parted for the night.

"Sleep tight!" Suzie called out of the Beetle's window as Cas and the Winchesters shut the doors of the Impala. Dean waved back amiably and both groups took off into the night, leaving the remnants of their fire to smolder in the dark.

In the Impala, Sam and Dean both remarked how nice it was to have fellow hunters out there, taking care of things.

"They're awfully cute, too," Dean said with a wink.

"Like you really care. They're too much like us to even think about romance," Sam retorted.

"True," Dean replied.

"I noticed that," Cas interjected, "Suzie shares Sam's penchant for the academic and other things of the... I believe you call it the 'geeky' variety." Sam chuckled a bit and nodded his agreement. "Di has the same quick wit and... 'street smarts' as Dean, she's very weapon-savvy, and she loves her car. Your names even start with the same letter. Strange how serendipity can arrange things."

"Or maybe it was God," Sam suggested.

"Or maybe it was God." Cas agreed.

"That Xephaniah character is something else, isn't she?" Dean said, "I like her style."

"She's kind of crazy, and based on what she can do with that angel blade, I definitely don't want to be on her bad side," Sam said, "So it's pretty good that she's so likable and likes us, too. It's weird, though. Most angels we meet are the epitome of the soldier. In addition, they're either kind of a dick or cold and calloused... or both, personality wise. She's one of the nicest people I've ever met."

Dean grunted his agreement. Cas, however, remained silent.

Turning to look back in the seat, Sam saw the pensive look on Cas' face. "Hey Cas," he said, snapping Cas out of his reverie, "You doing the meditating thing already?"

"Uh... no," Cas replied, "I was just thinking... about... Xephaniah."

"Got you a little angel-crush, eh?" Dean chuckled. Cas shuddered and looked disturbed, "Please, Dean. Even if she weren't such a bizarre creature, she's still my sister."

"Hey," Sam said, "Look; you've been really uncomfortable around Xeph all night, even _after_ she gave you your memories back. What's that all about? She's a good angel, she's on our side."

"Everyone is uncomfortable around Xephaniah," Cas replied, looking out the window, "The few times that any one angel has ever worked with her have been awkward and strange, somewhat unpleasant for anyone else involved. Except for Xephaniah. She seemed to welcome the company."

Sam looked nonplused, "Why?" he asked incredulously.

Castiel sighed, "Every angel that I knew belonged either to my garrison or another garrison, commanded my garrison or commanded another garrison," he began, "There were established channels of command and communication... and she was outside of that. She didn't belong to a garrison, a group of any kind. She was always alone, always followed a different set of orders... she didn't fit."

"Oh my God," Sam laughed, "You are _the guy_ who has had his memory erased so many times because he never truly follows orders. You're the one on team free will. How is her outsider nature offensive to you, of all people?"

"It isn't so much, now that I've had these experiences," Cas admitted, "But that isn't the biggest thing that makes us all so uncomfortable around her anyway."

"What's the biggest thing?" Dean asked, glancing back in the rearview mirror.

"Her wings," Cas replied, and tried to suppress yet another shudder.

"Okay..." Sam said, drawing out the first syllable, "What about her wings?"

The angel sighed once again, "She keeps them folded in all the time."

"What's the big deal?" Sam queried, "You fold your wings in sometimes, right?"

"Not completely and not constantly. She, however, does."

Dean spoke up, "You're saying she keeps her wings pulled in-"

"Fairly tight, in fact," Cas interrupted.

"She keeps her wings pulled in all the time?" Dean continued, "24/7?"

"Yes."

"Why does _that_ bother you?" Sam asked.

"It's unnatural!" Cas exclaimed, "What's an angel without its wings? She has them, yes, but never ever uses them. She never flies, even while up in Heaven, she just sort of... disappears. We all thought for so long that she was not quite right in the head, and some of my more unkind brothers and sisters questioned her very existence. Why would God create a creature that is mentally deformed like that? What purpose does she even serve?"

"Well..." Sam foundered for something to say, and then appeared to hit upon something, "You were in contact with her mind, right? When she was giving you back your memories?"

"Yes."

"Did she seem 'not-quite-right-in-the-head' to you?"

"She's perfectly sane." Cas replied.

"Well that's good!" Sam said, "...isn't it?"

"I suppose it is," Cas assented reluctantly, "She does have a whole lot of secrets, though."

"Oh really?" Dean asked, "How could she keep secrets if you were in contact with her mind?"

"Allow me to explain," Cas offered, "When the mental contact is that deep, each person will sort of 'tour' the mind of the other to get acquainted. It's a way of getting used to the other person's presence in your head."

"And?"

"... and... walking through Xephaniah's mind was like walking through the dark halls of a haunted mansion at midnight," Cas replied, "There were so many locked doors, so many passages labeled 'do not enter'. You can normally get a sense of someone's life story when you do something like this. I don't know how she grew up at all. I don't know anything about her except she has an eccentric personality and is compassionate to a fault, especially when it comes to children. That's all I gleaned. I have no idea how much older than me she is or how she acquired such a skill set. Then she opened up the... 'door' at the end of the hallway, where she keeps all the memories that aren't hers and flooded me with mine. That was the end of my tour."

"So she has secrets. She hides things. Everyone does." Dean said, "What's the big deal?"

"It's not that she just hides a few things, Dean. Xephaniah, the very angel herself, _is hidden_."

Silence descended in the Impala as they pulled into the parking lot of their hotel. Sam turned and said, "Look, I know you're uncomfortable with her, but she is a good asset to keep around. She's very powerful and very skilled. I'm almost willing to say she's some sort of... I don't know, super-top-secret angel ninja. Why that warrants her getting assigned guard duty to a couple of fledgling hunters for ten years plus is a mystery, but the point is we have another ally, three actually including the Black sisters. Those two girls aren't metaphysical lightweights you know. This is good."

"I know," Cas grumbled, "I still don't like it."

"Well you don't have to," Dean said, "But I'm not quite ready to go to sleep yet. Let's go inside and watch a movie or something- I've got a pie in the fridge calling my name. By the way, Sam," Dean paused as he shut the door of the Impala and gave his brother a questioning look, "Super-top-secret angel ninja?"

"What?" Sam replied, "That's what it looked like to me." He pulled their gear out of the trunk of the Impala and headed for the room, Cas in tow.

Dean laughed quietly to himself and opened their door to admit both brothers and Cas to the hotel room. They settled in for the night, discussing what to watch on TV and slicing off pieces of pie as a lonely angel watched them through their window on a rooftop across the street. Taking particular interest in the fact that Castiel was doing all right, not shaken up or sick or anything most people suffered when coming in contact with her mind, she smiled sadly to herself, sent up a quiet prayer for strength, then unfurled her wings for the first time in days and flew off into the time-space continuum. She had promises to keep.

"And miles to go before I sleep," she murmured under her breath, quoting one of her vessel's favorite poets, "And miles to go before I sleep."


	6. Epilogue: Have a Great Evening

The anchorwoman quirked her perfectly painted, wine colored lips as her colleague finished narrating the piece on some Twitter-powered international scavenger hunt that was taking place the following week. Right on cue, he stopped speaking and she took up where he left off, their timing impeccable.

"Finally, we'll close this evening with a bit of strange news out of Drumhead. The local fishery in Drumhead was broken into last night and half of it demolished... but apparently whoever did it was truly very sorry about it."

Without skipping a beat, the voice over video she had shot earlier that day began to play on the screen, "Last night, security cameras in the parking lot of the Drumhead fishing warehouse, owned by Iron Waters, an organic and eco-friendly company that sells out of Whole Foods, caught a group of people allegedly breaking into the warehouse. The first group, as you can see here, is a group of three men in their mid-thirties who drive up in what appears to be a black Chevy Impala. They get out, take huge bags of what will later be determined to be rock salt out of their car and appear to enter the building, though because of the angle of the security cams, this cannot be determined. Almost forty-five minutes later, another group drives up in a powder blue Volkswagen beetle and parks relatively close to the Impala. This time, it's three women in their early to late twenties who get out of the car, and simply walk inside. After another hour or so, five of them walk out of the building, pause for a moment as if in conversation, and then the sixth, one of the women, appears carrying a rather large amount of firewood. They then proceed to make a campfire and sit around it, talking into the wee hours of the morning. Here, you can see a time lapse video- they appear to be having a great time. Now this might not seem all that shocking to you, but the craziest part was what the manager found when he opened up shop in the morning."

The camera cut to the weathered face of a middle-aged black man, the manager, and his name appeared on the screen, "Well it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen," he began, "I come up here and I seen that huge circle of white stuff and I thought well, I'll handle it real careful in case it's dangerous. Of course, my grandson chose that exact moment to put some in his mouth and officially pronounced it salty, so it turned out to be rock salt. Well, I got curious so I went in the building and I saw drawings of some weird Satanic looking [expletive] in there and started getting nervous."

"And what was the Satanic-looking... ah, stuff, all about?" The interviewer asked.

"Hell if I know," he replied, "I just found these weird drawings like some kind of, I don't know, spell all around the rooms at the perimeter of my building, in paint, no less. Then I went to the back of the building, where all our freezers are, and I found a real mess."

As the camera panned around the damage, taking in the rubble, the voice-over resumed, "The walls were torn out, as if by a bulldozer, and there was a six foot hole in the ceiling. Freezers were overturned and there were several piles of what looks like ash, samples of which have been sent off to a crime lab to determine what exactly the substance is."

"I couldn't believe it. I was going to get fired on the spot, I just knew it. I found the security cam footage and thought, well maybe the police can make sense of this. Then suddenly, at 4:15 sharp, I got a phone call from, of all people, the freakin' president of the company all the way from Albany, New York."

"The phone call," voice over resumed, "lasted just over three minutes, in which Iron Waters' president John Baltimore told Mr. Jordan a very welcome and surprising piece of news."

The manager, Mr. Jordan, continued, "He says to me, 'Hello, is this Frank Jordan, Drumhead branch of Iron Waters fisheries?' I said, 'Yes sir.' He says, 'Apparently there was a break-in last night and things got rough,' and I said, 'Yes sir, I'd say it got pretty rough all right. The back half is demolished.' And then he says-" here, Mr. Jordan broke off and ran a hand over his face, still in shock, "He says, 'Well don't worry about it, Frank. Whoever is responsible felt so bad they covered the cost of repair and wages lost for your workers.' I could not believe my ears!"

"We got in contact with Mr. Baltimore to learn more about this stunning development."

A recorded telephone conversation briefly took over, "Yeah, uh, it was pretty weird. I was getting ready to head home from a charity function and I got this phone call from some really perky, enthusiastic woman saying that I had a huge donation check waiting for me at the office. I asked her what exactly she was talking about and she told me about this break-in down in Drumhead, South Carolina and how sorry she was about it and they couldn't really help it but some really bad people decided to go blowing up buildings in the middle of the night and they did put a cap on it but not before the building got torn to rubble. She kept going on about how she felt really terrible about it, and the people of Drumhead couldn't afford to wait while we scrambled to fix it because half of the little town is employed by us, and finally I asked her, So what, you just covered the costs? And she was like, of course I did, what else was I going to do? So I ran off to my office and lo and behold there is an email from our bank saying we have a _massive_ multimillion dollar donation, do we accept? Well... yes!"

The voice over picked up where Baltimore left off, "Mr. Baltimore went on to tell us that he got another phone call from the woman a few minutes later, instructing him to let the manager at Drumhead know about the donation at precisely 4:15 the next morning, so he'd be in the loop, and then ended the call with a slightly chilling warning."

"One of the last things she said to me," John Baltimore finished, "Was that she'd heard rumors about us 'corporate' types, and if she saw any worker getting cheated out of any of their salary, even if it's mere penny pinching on our part, she would 'not be very happy', and the way she said it kind of made me imagine all types of terrifying things, so I swore to her I'd stay on the straight and narrow."

"The manager at the Drumhead fishing warehouse is ecstatic," said the voiceover.

"This means that people get to feed their families. This means we won't go under. And in my personal system of beliefs, this means that there is a God, and He is watching over us."

"Wow," said the male anchor, "Powerful stuff."

"That's true, Mike," she said amiably, and turned back to the camera, "Well, that's all for this broadcast, folks. Be sure to tune in later tonight at eleven, and on behalf of everyone here at CBS 4, have a great evening."

FIN

_Author's Note:_

_Hello all! I hope you enjoyed! Just a few things to point out._

_-This fic is dedicated to the real angel Castiel, whom I firmly believe could actually exist in the realm of our reality. Also, something good should happen to the fictional Castiel for once, so I made it so (ish)._

_-You may notice that this doesn't all fit with the way the series is going right now. You may also notice I set this to be in the hypothetical 13__th__ or 14__th__ season (ten years after the Apocalypse story arc started), so maybe that makes up for my "continuity errors" in your eyes._

_-And now a word on the amazing experience I had naming the main OC, Xephaniah:_

_When I first decided I would name her Xephaniah, I just thought it was some cool name I'd heard somewhere, most likely in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Steven Pullman. As the fic progressed, I grew more and more curious as to where I'd heard the name, so I Googled it and found the similar name of a minor Biblical prophet, Zephaniah. Here's the cool part: my character, Xephaniah, is a lone angel that her fellow brothers and sisters rarely see. The name, Zephaniah, which is sometimes spelled Xephaniah in old manuscripts, means... get this... "hidden one of God" or "one whom Yahweh has hidden"._

_Her name LITERALLY means her life (and job description, but more on that later)... and it happened completely by accident. That's when I knew this fic and this character was meant to be. It was marvelously serendipitous... and that realization, of course, inspired the actual name of the fic itself._

_I may decide to write more with her... this story isn't over yet (what about "Lilith" and her demon armies?). Stay tuned, I suppose._

_Thanks for reading, all of you. I appreciate it!_

_Sincerely,_

_Kami the Music Box_


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